


Social Creatures and Athletes (Premise/Idea)

by GypNama



Series: SCA [1]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Cheerleaders, Eventual Relationships, Female Pronouns for Pidge | Katie Holt, Implied Relationships, Multi, Pining Lance (Voltron), Platonic Relationships, Rating May Change, Tags May Change
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-21
Updated: 2018-04-21
Packaged: 2019-04-26 00:19:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,468
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14390157
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GypNama/pseuds/GypNama
Summary: Lance's decision to join the college cheer squad is taking its toll.A teaser, a pilot episode, a taste of the collage cheer au that I didn't know I needed in my life. Social Creatures and Athletes is the child of my obsession with Voltron and my love for competitive cheer.





	Social Creatures and Athletes (Premise/Idea)

**Author's Note:**

> Special thanks to my brother, an ex cheerleader and coach, for reminiscing with me about our old competitive cheer days. <3  
> Special SPECIAL thanks to my friends who read over everything and gave it the "you should post this" blessing.  
> @mcgrillzdumpinc (tumblr) is my lovely amazing editor.

Have you ever entered a world that turned out to be way more intense than you thought it would be? You lay there on the blue, carpeted mats in the middle of a practice gym at your university after one of the most intense conditioning workouts you’ve ever been through and you think is _how did this happen?_ _Why am I here?_ You can barely breathe. You’re drenched in sweat. You borderline want to throw up. And then you hear you coach, “C’mon now! Get up! We aren’t finished here. These mats aren’t going to put themselves away.” Ugh! You’re sick of hearing your coach’s voice.

After an entire summer of this you’d think you’d be used to this by now. That’s what Lance thought as he hoisted himself up to his feet. His legs and arms felt like jelly and his abs screamed with every little movement. Trying out for the college cheerleading squad was turning out to feel like his death was going to come early if this kept up. He missed his old dance studio where he didn’t have to worry about catching girls coming down from a three person high stunt; appearing at parades, social events, sporting events; or having to go to privates to get his mediocre tumbling up to the squad’s competitive leve. Why was cheerleading so intense? So competitive? So… so… he couldn’t think of the right words. He was too tired.

He reached down to pull at the blue velcro that held two of the long, carpeted blue panel-like mats together. There were seven of them in all and they had to be rolled up along with all the velcro strips. Neatly, none of that half-assed shit. He was almost done rolling up a strip when he heard the voice of the guy who got him started in all this shout out, “Good job today guys.” His voice was strong and cheerful and full of that inspirational spice that everyone needed at the end of a hard day. Lance could listen to that voice all day long. It belonged to Shiro, the buff as hell, beauti-

“You know it’s a tough day when you get Lance to shut up,” chuckled that annoying voice, that belonged to that cocky gymnast Keith (who Lance just hadn’t been able to get along with). Of course he would rudely interrupt Lance’s thought process.

“Maybe you haven’t had enough conditioning and need to start all over, Keith,”came another annoying voice, but this time with a huge helping of superiority. Lotor, one of the team captains, had little to no patience with the “little” gymnast and “little” dancer’s constant bickering. Everyone in earshot turned and glared, even Shiro. They all knew that if one of them had to start over again then _everyone_ had to start over. They continued to pull off all the velcro and roll up the mats like clockwork, but this time in silence. When the mats were rolled up, they were huge and heavy and had to be pushed out of the gym and down the hall to a storage room. Normally they could leave them along one of the walls, but the gym was booked for a middle school basketball tournament that weekend.

“Hurry up so we can all go home,” their other captain, Allura, called out to everyone. She was the queen - no, the _empress_ \- of the squad and everyone did their best to obey or else face her wrath. He heard rumors of how she was during competition season and to be completely honest, Lance wasn’t sure he was ready for that Allura. Once they were done their coach, Coran, called them over, “alright everyone! Huddle up!” All sixteen members trotted over and circled around him. Everyone was covered in sweat and kept their distance from one another so they wouldn’t have to inhale each other’s breath. Some of the girls had pulled their shirts up to reveal their bellies, just to try and cool down. Their coach continued speaking when everyone was present.

“We will be starting our choreography camp next weekend. Our stunts are looking good. Just a few more tweaks and we’ll be golden. After choreography camp, I know that classes for the fall semester will be starting, and your schedule will get loaded. My veterans, please help the freshmen adjust. You are all doing great and I am proud of the growth I’ve seen over the summer. That’s all I have for you tonight, good job everyone, hands in!” Reluctantly they all reached over to the center of the huddle.

“On three,” Allura said, “one-two-three!” and they all shouted together, “AstroLions!” They all raised their hand simultaneously at the word, turned, and scattered to the wind. Some like Olia and Keith took off on their own. Others, like Lotor and his clique, left together. Slowly, everyone trickled out of the gym. His roommate Hunk walked over and asked thoughtfully, “You okay man?” He was always thoughtful and kind. Hunk was that one guy who was always there to help and someone no one could ever get angry at.

“Yeah,” Lance replied, “just hungry.”

“Let's go eat.”

“You guys are going for food?” Another voice Lance was too tired to hear at the moment. This one belonged to Katie, also known as Pidge, also known as Matt’s little sister, also known as the sister part to the legendary brother-sister duo who could probably out-stunt the nation.

“Yeah,” Hunk said, “wanna come with?”

“Of course! Matt! Food! Lets Go!” she called back to the last of the group. Matt was talking with Allura and Shiro. They all had smiles on their faces and he drew them in for an overly enthusiastic group hug before jogging over to the waiting freshman. Lance’s stomach ached, either from hunger or the thought that perhaps Matt had hugged Shiro and Allura that way to be happy about something specific. Maybe Shiro and Allura were back together. Lance’s heart sank a bit at that thought.

“What are we having tonight guys?” Matt’s playful, raspy voice also chilled Lance a bit. He couldn’t help but wonder if Shiro and Matt had been a thing, or even a fling, in the past.

“How about Jess’ Diner down the road? It’s super chill right now,” Hunk suggested.

“I’m down,” said Matt.

“No!” screamed Pidge, “that place is not good Hunk, we should go to that 24-hour cafe on Juniper St.”

“Umm no! Pidge it’s past three pm, I know you want the coffee there,” Matt protested as they continued walking out of the gym. Lance looked back at Allura and Shiro, not really paying attention to his friends bickering about dinner. Shiro was grabbing their bags and he could tell that both of them were more giddy than usual. What could that mean? Lance felt so left out. He thought that by hanging out with the dynamic duo he could get closer to Shiro since Shiro was close to Matt. But the summer went by so fast that he began to think that Shiro would be another one of those crushes he’d never get to see become something more.

As he walked out of the stuffy gym and into the cool, fresh night air with Hunk and the duo, he thought of when he first saw Shiro. It had been almost seven or eight months since the football game Shiro was on the side lines for. After visiting four or five other colleges in the region, it was Lance’s last visit to Altea University, and his mom had insisted that he go to the game that night. He had looked down at the drill squad he was thinking of joining, if he were to be accepted, when his gaze shifted to the cheerleaders who were starting to put up a few stunts. He saw Shiro toss up a girl, who he now recognizes as Olia, in a simple toss-hands partner stunt. It was pretty graceful, and it had drawn Lance in. Olia was smiling with her pom poms waiving in the air. Shiro was smiling and making it look so easy. With a dip of his knees he popped her down after a few cheers.

They had formed a group with three others to load Olia into a basket toss. All of them together bent their knees and thrusted olia into the air. She exploded out of the basket, and after a moment brought her knees to her chest and flipped backwards for a back tuck to then gracefully open up and fall into the arms of the group that threw her. After that moment, and seeing the unmistaken joy in Shiro’s face after catching her, unloading her and then continue to jump and spirit with the cheering crowd, Lance had fallen in love.

**Author's Note:**

> To be continued!  
> Thank you for reading! You can find me on tumblr [Gyp Nama](http://gypnama.tumblr.com/)  
> Reference Videos:  
> [Toss Hands](https://youtu.be/VhlldIY_BZw)  
> [Back Tuck Basket](https://youtu.be/QbhOlecil5g)  
> [2-2-1 wolf wall (the one Lance was thinking of)](https://youtu.be/PXsxbagLa8U)  
> [Stunting/spiriting @ games 1](https://youtu.be/UDA6YeaW6Tw)  
> [Stunting/spiriting @ games 2](https://youtu.be/9maD3DlMXfs)


End file.
